Michael is an attorney in New York, and the creator of Syncopated Politics, a blog focusing on the intersection of history and politics (with occasional side-trips to Supreme Court rulings, economic conferences, films, and opera). He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University (Political Science) and Fordham University Law School. He is fortunate enough to have married brilliantly and has two endlessly fascinating children, about whom he talks far too much. Email: mlissnyc [at] gmail.com
by Michael Liss My Jefferson is a giant, but a giant trammeled in a net, and obliged (he thought) to keep repairing and strengthening the coils of that net. —Garry Wills, “Negro President” Late in his life, uncertain in his health, but sure in his pride, rummaging through the immense library of his memories, his…
by Michael Liss Wise men never sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms. —William Shakespeare, Henry VII One would think that a man like John Adams, who called Shakespeare a “great teacher of morality and politics,” might heed the Bard’s advice. One would be wrong. He couldn’t help himself.…
by Michael Liss [M]en by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties. 1. those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2dly those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them cherish and consider them as the most…
by Michael Liss [I]t was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the…
by Michael Liss Eight years ago, in May of 2018, motivated by a series of discussions with my then-graduating son, I wrote a piece for 3 Quarks Daily titled “The Graduate Schools His Father.” Then, chaos descended upon the land. Trump, Biden, Trump. Wars, pestilence, theological disputes, DOGE, gigantic icebergs of cash floating away from…
by Michael Liss [T]he most important political office is that of the private citizen. —Justice Louis Brandeis We are losing that essential bit of democracy. Bit by bit, not all at once, not linearly, but the decline is there. Fading is Alexis de Tocqueville’s young country of joiners of civic associations, maintaining their differences, but…
by Michael Liss For several centuries, as we moved from farm to city, the human ear has engaged in a ceaseless battle against the noise caused by human ingenuity. The ears are losing. It is loud out there, even in my bucolic and serene New York City. Just getting around can be sonically disruptive. Trucks,…
by Michael Liss March 3, 1933. Herbert Hoover spent his final hours in the White House in anger and despair. Angry that he’d been decisively rejected by an electorate wrongheaded enough to not realize the wisdom of his policies—even when the evidence of their efficacy had been there for all to see. Despairing that his…
by Michael Liss A picture may be worth 1000 words, but this picture, the centerpiece of Christine Roussel’s engaging Lunch on a Beam: The Making of an American Photograph, shows a beam that sits atop 60,000 tons of structural steel, hoisted, positioned, and riveted into place in by as many as 400 ironworkers at a…
by Michael Liss We had reached a place in Virginia. It was a very hot day. In this jungle, there was a man, a very tall man. He had with him his wife and several small children. We invited them over to have something to eat with us, and they refused. Then I brought something…
by Michael Liss In the autumn of 1929 the mightiest of Americans were, for a brief time, revealed as human beings. —John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash 1929 Ah, the mighty. The great, and the powerful. Let us take a moment to remember the mightiest of 1929. Among them surely had to be Herbert Hoover,…
by Michael Liss No Congress of the United States ever assembled, on surveying the state of the Union, has met with a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time. In the domestic field there is tranquility and contentment, harmonious relations between management and wage earner, freedom from industrial strife, and the…
by Michael Liss … I watched with increasing apprehension the Third Republic go downhill, its strength gradually sapped by dissension and division, by an incomprehensible blindness in foreign, domestic, and military policy, by the ineptness of its leaders, the corruption of its press, and by a feeling of growing confusion, hopelessness, and cynicism (Je m’en…
by Michael Liss In 16th century Prague, so the legend goes, the sage Rabbi Judah Loew, Talmudist, philosopher, mystic, mathematician, and astronomer, searching desperately for a way to protect his community from violence, took a figure made of soil or clay, and, through sacred words, animated him. The product of his efforts, a Golem, served…
by Michael Liss “[T]o hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions….” —Lillian Hellman, Letter to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), May 19, 1952 She wouldn’t…
by Michael Liss George Washington and his wife Martha were committed eaters and generous hosts. A meal was a serious affair: fine China, glassware and cutlery, a variety of spirits, wines, and champagne, soups and souffles, trifles, crisps, tortes, any number of things pulled or plucked from the soil or vines, harvested from the bays…
by Michael Liss Words, so many words. Words that inspire “Ask Not,” and those that call upon our resolve “[A] date that will live in infamy.” Words that warn about the future “[W]e must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex,” and those that express optimism about…
by Michael Liss Ay! I am fairly out and you fairly in! See which one of us will be happiest! —George Washington to John Adams, March 4, 1797 No one in American history has ever known better how and when to make an exit than George Washington. Just two days before Washington left for the…
by Michael Liss April 1, 1865. For the South, the end is nearing. It was already obvious on March 4, when Abraham Lincoln delivered his magnificent Second Inaugural Address. Four weeks later, it is more obvious. For all the bravery of the Confederacy’s men and all the talent of its military leadership, its resources are…
by Michael Liss It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens. —Aristotle, Politics Aristotle was an optimist. Try to visualize an old Greek guy in a himation as a talking head on one of the Sunday shows. He’s never getting an invite to the White House—and it’s not just…